Ultimately, the best word to describe singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton’s concert Friday at Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem is sad.

From the opening tune “Carousel” [except for a silly starting snippet of Biz Markee’s “You Say He’s Just a Friend”] the emotion most prevalent in Carlton’s 16-song, 85-minute set was sorrow – at loss, at transition, at reminiscence, at life in general.

Even her voice and music – mostly crafted to be dramatic and convey emotion – carried an unmistakable melancholy.

But it wasn’t only that. There was sadness that, a dozen years after Carlton’s breakthrough hit “A Thousand Miles,” her talent hasn’t developed further, and her music hasn’t been more popular.

Vanessa Carlton at Musikfest CafePhotos by Brian Hineline/Special to The Morning Call

Carlton’s set, the final show of a two-week tour, was heavily weighted toward new music: Six songs from her upcoming (not until 2015) fifth album “Liberman” and five from her last disc, 2011’s “Rabbit on the Run,” with just four from her prior catalog, plus a duet with husband John McCauley on a song from his band Deer Tick.

On that opening song, which Carlton played on a grand piano (she traded it for an electronic keyboard for later song), she showed that, at 33, her voice remains the strong-yet-vulnerable instrument heard on her hits. An added echo, among several sonic effects employed during the night, gave it an even more haunting quality.

After “Hands on Me” from her 2007 disc “Heroes & Thieves” – which added Skye Steel on violin – and the “Rabbit on the Run” song “Tall Tales for Spring,” Carlton dove into her new disc with “House of Seven Swords,” replete with ambient sounds and effects, and “Take It Easy.”

Those four songs gave a hint at Carlton’s failings. All sounded impressive, or at least interesting, but ultimately were unsatisfying -- the music directionless (the songs didn’t really end, they simply stopped), the lyrics all but impenetrable. Later in the set, she confessed she thought some of her albums were “over-embellished.”

It didn’t help to have, during what often were quiet and delicate songs, the loud World Cup Soccerfest going on outside. Carlton referred to it a few times, once saying, “I don’t know if we can compete with the concert outside,” then telling it to “shut up!”

The concert’s turning point was the new “Willows,” which Carlton said was about her growing up in Milford, Pike County. With its looped violin chords and pluckings and far stronger melody, it had a Celtic feel to it, and showed how good Carlton can be with more accessible music.

As if to slam home that point, she followed it with the hit, and likely her best song, “White Houses.” Even with its melancholy story (the violin made it even more mournful), the song was great – Carlton singing it incredibly and its meaning simply heartbreaking. The sedate crowd of 290 actually whooped afterward.

With husband John McCauley

“Get Good” from “Rabbit on the Run” also had more melody – floating and tinkling – even as it was nostalgic, moody and emotional.

Husband McCauley came on stage to play guitar on the new songs “Young Heart” and “Matter of Time” (she said he also plays on them on the upcoming album). Both were very good Americana/folk, the latter with no piano at all, that fit Carlton surprisingly well. The Deer Tick song “In Our Time,” on which she sang duet, was straight-up country.

The new song “Unlock the Lock” was more of that drama-for-drama’s sake, but Carlton closed her main set exceptionally strong. “The Marching Line” from “Rabbit on the Run” had good tension and real drama, as well as good song structure.

And that album’s “I Don’t Want to Be a Bride,” one of the night’s best, was truly heart-rending. It was Loretta Lynn-esque country that prompted Carlton to say she “wrote it before I got married,” as her husband watched from a stool at the café bar.

She closed the main set with “A Thousand Miles,” which, if anything, has simply gotten better over the years. She performed it far more starkly – more sedate and mature – transforming it from a song of hopeful longing into a wistful tale of a lost time.

It’s sad that Carlton hasn’t been able to catch more of what she did in that song.

The encore was “Home” from her 2007 “Heroes & Thieves” album, and it was everything that’s best about Carlton. Again competing with the outside noise, it was classical – and classic: beautiful piano flourishes over mournful violin, Carlton lyrically opening her heart.

The comments to this entry have been closed.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.